The Undertones who have been playing together again since 1999 recently played in the Warwick Hotel in Salthill,Galway on the25th/26th of July 2002 as part of the Galway Arts Festival.All the original members of the band are part of this reunion except for Fergal Sharkey,Paul Mc Loone being the new lead vocalist.In this section of my Website are pictures I took at the concert.The following information on the reunion of the band was taken from the following website:www.muse.ie/070700/interview/under.html.Dave Roberts interviewed John O'Neill and Mickey Bradley.
The Undertones were together from 1975 to 1983.Their eight year spell together produced many highs ("Teenage Kicks", their eponymous debut album and the subsequent LPs "Hypnotised", "The Positive Touch" and "Sin Of Pride") but when they called it a day and released the compilation "All Wrapped Up" in 1983, it seemed the break-up was permanent. Feargal Sharkey's formation of The Assembly with Vince Clarke, his (initially at least) successful solo career and the fact that guitarist brothers John and Damien O'Neill formed That Petrol Emotion seemed to indicate that a reunion was totally impossible. That it has taken this long hasn't been from want of offers, as John O'Neill explains.
"We were offered some festival a few years ago but Feargal wasn't interested so the rest of us didn't think anything else about it. Billy (Doherty, drummer) and Mickey (Bradley, Bass) had been good friends with The Sawdoctors and they'd get up for encores and stuff with them. Billy had continually asked me to come down for the weekend and take part as well. Last year, by pure coincidence, Damien had been over in Derry and Billy said they'd give us an all expenses paid weekend in Galway if we'd get up and play a couple of songs. So we got together and practised about seven songs and were quite pleased and surprised how fresh they sounded.
"We did those gigs with the Sawdoctors on vocals. From that, we thought we should think of doing this without Feargal. At the same time, we thought nobody would be interested in paying for us to do shows without him. People thought the band was all about Feargal and we were just his backing band. We put out a few feelers and were amazed that people were interested in the four of us if we got a new singer. Paul (McLoon, the band's new vocalist) had played in a band (The Carolines) with Billy from a few years ago and so we tried him out. The Nerve Centre, the place where I work, was opening a new premises and they asked if they thought we would play. It was an ideal opportunity because we thought if we didn't win over the people of Derry we couldn't go any further with it. It just went like a dream. People took to Paul straight away. It seemed very natural. The reality is when I listen to the records now it sounds much better with Paul. At times he sounds so much like Feargal he's scary. Paul is a much better frontman than Feargal. He had a lot of problems with stamina and reaching the highnotes in a lot of songs. By the third song in the set, Feargal was often down on his knees. Paul doesn't have that problem."
The following information was obtained from the following website:http://www.rykodisc.com/Catalog/CatalogArtist_01.asp?Action=Get&Artist_ID=177
In all, the Undertones released four albums and a stack of non-LP (until now) singles sides, with each album sounding considerably different from the one before it. For much of their career, the Derry quintet -- singer Feargal Sharkey, guitarists John and Damian O'Neill, bassist Michael Bradley and drummer Billy Doherty -- was one of Britain's most popular bands, combining timeless pop smarts with punk-inspired musical grit. More than a decade after the group's breakup, their guilelessly catchy tales of teenage life -- once humorously summarized in the song title "More Songs About Chocolate and Girls" -- still hold a special place in the hearts of longtime fans and recent converts alike, having been acknowledged as a seminal influence by countless bands on both sides of the Atlantic.
If you would like to hear a
short part of what is their best known song"Teenage Kicks" click on the
following link:
Click on each picture to see further pictures of each member of the band.
